A wide variety of door handle styles and systems exists. One style of door handle includes a lever-type handle. Lever-type handles commonly include an outside lever handle mounted on an outside of a door panel, an inside lever handle mounted on an inside of the door panel, and a latch bolt mechanism mounted inside the door panel. The latch bolt mechanism is interconnected to the lever handle, which in combination controls the opening and closing of the door. To open the door, the lever handle is typically rotated or turned in a downward direction. The lever handle generally rotates no more than 90 degrees relative to an initial horizontal orientation.
Conventional lever handle designs include a lever that extends horizontally toward the center of a doorframe. In some designs, the doorframe includes a window. The lever of the handle assembly can extend across the window. In maintaining the appearance of the door panel or the window, a person often has to work around the extension portion of the handle. In general, improvement has been sought with respect to such configurations, generally to better accommodate ease of cleaning and maintenance of a door having a lever handle assembly.